Pack of playing cards

Philippines, early 19th century AD

Taken from a pirate ship

Playing cards first appeared in China, but the route by which
they moved westwards is still unclear. The first European playing
cards, dating from shortly before AD 1370, were based on Islamic
packs with the four suits of coins, sticks, swords and cups, much
as are used in Italy and Spain today. This pack has the suits of
hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades as invented by the French (the
knave of hearts is now missing). Now used internationally, these
cards were clearly already present in South-east Asia in the middle
of the nineteenth century.

The cards were collected by Sir Edward Belcher (1799-1877), a
captain in the British Navy who played an active and possibly
over-enthusiastic role in the suppression of piracy in the seas
around Indonesia and the Philippines in the 1840s. The archipelagos
of South-east Asia were crucial zones for maritime trade,
particularly between Europe and China, but also between the various
islands and their trading partners. A large and renewable workforce
was needed to meet the increasing demand for natural products from
these islands. Pirates therefore not only profited from the
commercial activities taking place in the area but also by running
the slave trade. These playing cards are said to have been
confiscated by Belcher from a pirate ship.